Transfer 2 Week 4

So this week has been pretty chill but as usual we have been working hard and having fun. If y'all would like I would love to tell you all about it. Ok I will. So if you didn't know the whole country is kind of going through a big snow-storm, and it already snows a lot in Utah, so if you add those two together you get a lot of snow. The day it started really snowing hard we were on our way home for dinner, and we live by some really big hills. Our car was doing fine, we have four wheel drive and it's relatively heavy with five of us in it so we have pretty good traction, but the five or so cars that were stuck on this one hill were not like that. Well we decided a snow-storm was the perfect time to do some service! So we parked, hopped out, and pushed cars up a snowy hill until they got enough speed to go on their own, but some couldn’t make it. Like this one lady who’s house was like 200 or so feet away and she couldn't get there, so we got her to her driveway. Or this older gentleman whose car couldn't make it so he just turned around and started down the hill; well he lost most of the little control he had and slid and almost hit a car parked on the street and then jumped a curb and tore up some grass. The lady who lived there was very kind about it and she moved the car on the street and got her sons who were visiting to come out and help us shovel him a little path and push him back onto the street. So that was exciting.

We also are making and editing this video for the mission to post on facebook. It's pretty much the best thing I have ever seen, and it's not even done yet! So we have these really cool clips of Elder Gray, track star, running in the snow in slow motion and I know that sounds cheesy but it's actually so cool. Hopefully we don't get too famous or anything.  Just doing all the good things out here on the mission you know.

We also had a couple of zoom meetings with President McConkie, one of the Counselors to the Mission President. He was teaching us how to become better teachers. Yes teaching about teaching. But it was great and we have been trying out some of the stuff he has taught us. We focused a lot on asking what we call inspired questions. That's a question that makes the person really ponder and think back on their own experiences and will hopefully open their hearts to our message.

OH YEAH a few weeks ago (I forgot to mention this) I found a pair of $120 slippers at ROSS for like $25 so you know I bought them.

We also went to a track the other morning to work out and it was really snowy and we had to hop a fence to get in. Well in my mind I thought, "oh this is easy! I can hop this no problem" and I rushed the fence and cut my hand and it hurt :( But I'm healing and I think I will be ok; prayers are appreciated though. We did run on the track in the snow. That was something new.  And Elder Gray lapped us like thirty times.

There is also this family from Honduras that we have been teaching who is so funny. We always laugh and have a really good time with them. Well the Mom and two kids have been so down to get baptized, but the Dad said he wanted some more time. Well this last week he said that he now felt ready and that he wants to be baptized with his family. So that is very fantastic.

Well I don't know what else to write, so I'm just gonna throw in some fun pictures and stuff.

Icicle on church building

 

A snowman that started leaning from all the falling snow

 

quick quote from the office: And I always say, "Michael, take two steps back and stare at the icicle from the side." And he's like, "no, I like the way they look from standing directly underneath them." It was only a matter of time.

Elders Gray, Piñeres and I with Scooby Doo Fruit Snacks

 

 

 

Well I love you all and I will see you next week :)

-Elder Golden

Transfer 2 Week 3 (or something like that)

SOOOOOOOO we spent all week in quarantine... very exciting I know. Also to all the people who were hanging onto the edges of their seats, I'm sorry to disappoint but I did not win the ping pong tournament. That's right I took second and choked in the finals. Even if I had played my best I don't know if it was in the cards that day haha.

Big news though, I slept a lot and fought off that rona. I think my record was 16 hours of sleep one day, and there were three other days where I slept for 13 hours. Pretty sure it was about that many haha. But also because we were in quarantine we had a lot of time to do some really good studying. Especially our language study which really took off this week and it's been great. We try to speak Spanish more often but it's hard to not speak English when it's so easy. My one companion Elder Gray grabbed one of our Spanish books and made a flash card for every single verb on this 5 page list. Took him a while but we've been grinding trying to memorize and use those throughout our days.

We also have been teaching as often as we can, all over zoom and WhatsApp (Latinos really love WhatsApp for some reason, couldn't tell you why) but that has been really good. And I feel like my Spanish really has gotten better. I understand 99% (not even exaggerating) of what is said in Spanish. And I can almost say half of the stuff I think of. Well I can loosely translate into Spanish what I think in English. And one time I even had a dream and I was dreaming in Spanish. Well I have no idea what they were saying but this person in my dream was indeed speaking Spanish which was funny.

Elder Jorgensen and Elder Gray are pretty darn good cooks which was a big time lifesaver during la cuarentena (quarantine). So we had some good "family dinners". ALSO I decided I'm going to be eating really healthy these next few weeks cause why not you know? Well maybe not really healthy but pretty much anything can be considered relatively healthy compared to how we used to be eating out like 5 times a week. So wish me luck on that. Hey you know what? I love y'all. Go out and do something nice for someone else this week. You won't regret it.

Funny thought: man we had so many funny times throughout this week I had a hard time deciding what to choose. But today Elder Gray and I went for another run (he ran, I biked) at a cool little 30 something degrees while it was snowing. We went 5 miles and my fingers just about came off. But anyways we started from a chapel. We drove to this chapel from our house. We do not have a bike rack. However, we do have a window and these dandy little arms (or quite large and muscular in my case; that was a joke) that God blessed us with. So yes I did hold my bike out the car window while we drove. I thought that was kind of funny.

Spiritual thought: so we've been teaching this really cool lady. She grew up Catholic and loves hearing about Christ. She called us and told us that she didn't really wanna meet with us anymore. Her reasons you ask? We talked too much about good old José Smith (Joseph but it Spanish) and the book of Mormon. And we didn't talk enough about Christ or the Bible. Well we definitely spent the majority of our time talking about Christ, and Joseph Smith was the prophet who restored Christ's gospel so it's a little hard to talk about Christ's restored gospel without talking about the guy who helped do it. But we talked with her, worked with her, then she hits us with the, "I feel the spirit reading the Bible, I don't feel the spirit reading the book of Mormon." Well she doesn't even know where her Bible is in her house, and she has maybe three copies of the Book of Mormon but we sure know she hasn't been reading any of them. Well we tell her that if she loves Christ, she would be delighted to find out that the Book of Mormon testifies of Christ on every page. We teach her how the Book of Mormon is the word of God. We keep teaching her about Christ and she agrees to keep meeting with us. We teach her about God's plan for us, how he wants us to spend our lives and eternity with our families. This one hit her hard, and we all really felt the spirit. We asked her to read a chapter we gave her in the Book of Mormon that night. The next day she calls us and tell us about the experience she had and how she felt when reading it and asking God if it was true. She told us she felt joy and peace and believed that it was true. She also said she now believes good old José Smith was a prophet who translated the Book of Mormon through the power of God. Well her Husband is actually a member of the church, an amazing man who was born and raised here in Utah and they met and got married when she moved here from Mexico. We told her to talk to him and tell him the experience she had. Well guess what, she drove out to California to visit him while he's working out there, and I think he will be quite pleased to know that she now wants to be baptized by him once he returns home to Utah. Wow, yeah, really powerful story.

Go ahead and dry your tears now. But I want to let you all know, if you want more joy in your life, get a copy of the Book of Mormon. Read it with real intent. Ponder it in your heart. And then ask God if it is true. He will give you an answer and you will feel so much joy.

That's all for this week, some pictures for ya, another run/ride, me napping (I did a lot of that this week), the boys in the car, and the video of me holding the bike out the window.

Oh yeah also we spent 160 dollars on this weeks groceries between four guys so we’re gonna be eating some beautiful home cooked meals.

Love you all and see you next week    -Elder Golden

Run/Ride with Elder Gray

Boys in the car

Transfer 2 Week 2

Disaster has struck. We tested positive for covid two days ago, Saturday February 6th 2021. A day to never be forgotten. So yeah, we're alive but not exactly feeling our best. I slept for about a total of 22 hours in the last two days; man it's exhausting staying at home all day. Don't be fooled though we’re still teaching and doing missionary work as much as we can out here. We aren't gonna let a little rona keep us from saving souls. Also, we have a ping pong table so quarantine hasn’t been too bad so far. We are currently in the middle of a tournament and it's been very cool. I will let you guys know how it turns out.

Another thing, we had 8 baptisms that were supposed to happen this last Saturday but none of them ended up happening because of various reasons and because of our covid but they will all go through in these next few weeks. Keeping our fingers crossed and keeping them in our prayers.

Today Elder Gray said he wanted to go for a run, and let me remind you that he's a division 1 runner. So I rode my bike with him and it was like all uphill and we have covid so I'm literally dying. The elevation is insane too. I'm so out of shape. Elder Gray claims he's out of shape too but he's lying. So that's an update on that too. I don't really remember what else has happened this week, shoot. But just know we are having a good time even with the covid bug haha. Also Elder Piñeres may have to stay until the end of the transfer which he's actually happy about; then he'll go to Colombia. But the power trio is still booming.

We had Zone conference this last week too and it was a few days before we got tested and President Call said he was thinking about shutting down two whole zones in quarantine cause we could've had it without knowing then. However, because we all kept our masks on and stayed away from everyone else he didn't need to. So your welcome President haha.

So quick funny thought: we did actually shut down all of the district leaders and their companions, the sister training leaders, and the zone leaders cause the day before we got tested we went to Zone Leadership Conference. Oops haha.

Spiritual thought: there is something in the Book of Mormon called Moroni’s Promise, and he says that if you read the Book with a sincere heart and ask God if it's true with real intent then you will receive a confirmation that it's true. So I invite you to try it cause it's amazing.
                                                                                                                                                                  -Elder Golden

Elder Gray trying to kill me on a run

 

 

Beautiful Sunset in Bountiful

Elder Allen's ingenuity when we "borrowed" an extra large toilet paper roll from the church

Transfer 2 Week 1

Power Trio
Well well well everybody, that's right, I'm back. I know you guys must've missed me so much so don't worry, I have another fuego email for you guys. So this last Tuesday was transfers and we got put in a trio with this way cool guy named Elder Gray. So we decided to pull a prank on our new companion and the other guy moving into our house, Elder Jorgensen, Elder Allen's new companion. We pretended that Elder Piñeres was from Colombia and barely spoke any English. So he spoke in mostly Spanish and whenever he spoke in English he spoke poorly and with an accent. So they totally bought it. It was hilarious. We got about halfway through the day when Elder Piñeres said, "This is exhausting I don't think I can do this for very much longer" and we ended up telling them the truth partway through the day. So yeah I just thought that was pretty hilarious. We had a lot of fun and some really good laughs about that. 

Elder Gray

So let me tell you a little bit about my new companion.   His name’s Elder Gray and he's a lot of fun. He likes to run,  and he likes to run really fast. He said he runs a 4   min 13 second mile. And he's running for BYU after his mission. Way cool. He's from Austin Texas and has been out for about six months. His original assignment is to Layton Utah Spanish speaking but he's been in an English Zone until now so  he's a little out of practice but he's actually got good Spanish, he's not perfect, and neither am  I yet but we’re getting better. We really do need to get better since Elder Piñeres is leaving us for Colombia in  two weeks :(

Well anyways let me tell you what we've been up to recently. We have been finding, teaching, and baptizing. Our power trio (companionship) has a motto, "mas fechas" which means more dates, which means we want to get more people on date to get baptized. So we've been teaching lots of lessons, and finding new people to teach. We also just had a baptism this Saturday. It was really great, her name is Maria. Her sister Marian got baptized last month if y'all remember that. But it was so awesome and I even gave a quick little message (in Spanish) (oh yeah if you guys forgot we teach literally every single one of our lessons in Spanish too) and I felt like I did a really good job. Getting better each and every day. 

Maria's Baptism

 

Also one night it was just like so cool, it snowed so hard and the snowflakes were huge, like the size of a quarter, and it just dumped so hard and just covered everything. So I put a picture of the aftermath the next day down below haha.

Flat Tire

It was so cold that it froze that way!

 Also BIG NEWS I'm an uncle! I found out right before the baptism started on Saturday that my sister was in the hospital preparing for delivery. So that was extra special. Let me tell you folks, my Niece Emi is super duper adorable. Way awesome. So yeah just a quick update on that too.

Mallory with Emi

Spiritual thought: Love one another as Jesus loves you. That's just something we should all live by. Jesus loves us, and we should do our best to love one another. "Feed my sheep" John 21:17

Funny thought: So we were out knocking doors with a few different members this week and one time Elder Piñeres leaned up against a wall and leaned against the wrong doorbell and we all heard it go off so we all looked at each other, then took off running and dying laughing. That was very very hilarious to us.

Love you all and signing out!!!

-Elder Golden